Here is the highest film of the year: The Principal lasts eighty-two minutes. That's not his only quality. We see a closed universe, people at work, a family in turmoil. That's a lot for such a short time. Director Chad Chenouga weaves a web with tight threads, shows a character at bay. Sabri (Roschdy Zem) is an assistant principal at a suburban college. What takes him? This gentleman in all respects suddenly falls into illegality. Why did he go and give the corrected copy to his son who passes the patent?
Naël is an excellent student, he doesn't need that. The kid is not aware of this penknife stroke. The father wants him to pass on the exam. For this, he is ready for anything. This man of integrity believes himself to be above the law. He no longer recognizes himself. This is a mistake, perhaps even a mistake. Sometimes the wisest beings commit the most unexpected acts. Brief moment of madness, feeling of omnipotence, there is all this.
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In the schoolyard, Sabri meets his ex-wife (Marina Hands) who is a teacher. Between them, the relationship seems to be up and down. Professional life is constantly interfering in the private sphere. Sparks occur. The teenager observes this spectacle with a wisdom that is not of his age. Roschdy Zem puts on the suit and tie of this official struggling in the trap he has set for himself. This actor has the quiet strength of a Cary Grant, the innocence of James Stewart. He risks becoming our Gabin. He has the stature. His presence is not debatable. We must consider him, straight in his boots, masking the fault that tears him, a little stiff, always on the alert.
Torments in the flesh
The hero has come a long way. Translate: from the neighboring city, where his brother has just been released from prison and is immersed in various trafficking. The inhabitants of the building in which he grew up have the impression that he has betrayed, that he is no longer one of them. Their language is no longer the same. Dealers despise him. There is an expression for that, class defector, that we have the wrong to put in all sauces. The social elevator, however, is not an empty word. He is proof of that. The Principal gives flesh to these torments. Marina Hands angry returned. Roschdy Zem bangs against the windows. His superior, Yolande Moreau, gave him enamoured glances. He is so lost that he invites him to thalassotherapy: the misunderstanding will wear a white bathrobe-sponge. What a chance to come across a film about Black Blood and Kenzaburô Oé! It's not so often that someone wins at a radio game because they've read Richard Brautigan, a colleague recommends the novel The Dice Man, and a professor recites Martin Eden's ending by heart.
Richness and sobriety are the two udders of this Principal who does not rest solely on the shoulders of his interpreter. We will remember this modest sequence where the two brothers play neither yes nor no, in front of their mother's grave. School is not over.
Le Figaro opinion: 3/4
